In case you missed it, I left my teaching job last year. Read more about that here.

It’s been a full teaching year since then, and I wanted to write a bit about what I’ve been doing with my time.

Since my job ended last June, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on myself, both in therapy and alone. I’ve dug through some shit, turns out when you stop occupying your brain with things, it will bring up everything you’ve ever told yourself not to think about. So, that’s fun.

I’ve spent a lot of time with my husband and my nephew and my best friend. I’ve spent a lot of time reading and sleeping and resting and recharging from eight years of nonstop go, go, go.

Oh and I wrote a book.

Like a full length novel kind of book.

In October of 2020, I experienced my first ever migraine with an aura (sometimes referred to as a complicated migraine) and it was scary and I ended up in the ER for the first time in my life. Out of that experience came a huge medical bill and a book idea.

Writing is something I’ve always done, even at a young age. I have a box in my attic labeled “Emily’s Writings,” that I recently looked through. It’s filled with stories and poetry, and song lyrics scribbled in black and white composition notebooks. Funnily enough, my ideas for this book were also scribbled in a black and white composition book. I don’t think I’ll ever outgrown my emo phase.

Though I’ve been writing this book for awhile now, I still find it difficult to actually call myself a writer. After all, I’m not published (yet) and Imposter Syndrome tends to rear it’s ugly head when you have a job that doesn’t actually make you any money.

But alas, I’m here to say that I’m a writer and I’ve written a novel.

Where am in the process? Well, at the time of writing this, I’m halfway through line edits and will be sending it to my alpha reader (AKA my husband) as soon as those are completed.

What happens next? That I’m still researching but my dream would be to traditionally publish said novel. I’ve got to find an agent and try to sell my book to someone who wants to publish it, so if you know anyone, or you are someone that wants to publish my book, let me know!

What’s it about you ask? To be honest, this is a pretty difficult question for me to answer. I find it hard to explain what the novel is about in short, as it’s lived in my brain for so long and I think about it in long form. Despite getting this question from everyone who finds out that I’m writing a book, I still haven’t perfected the answer.

Here it goes: It’s a generational tale of mothers and daughters who discover that they are inextricably linked in ways that aren’t easily explained. Through their discoveries, they learn about where they come from, who they are, how their relationships to each other have shaped them, and maybe they learn about forgiveness and what it means to be a whole person.

Boy, was that vague. I’m still working on the blurb, okay?

It’s pretty character driven, and there’s a touch of SciFi, but don’t let that scare you, there are no aliens (or are there)? This book developed from my own real life experiences, but it’s not autobiographical. There are parts that mirror some of my own experiences, but largely, it’s a work of fiction.

I write this to tell you (and myself) what I’ve been working on over the last year.

I’m a writer and I’ve written a book.

Later, I’ll write a post about my writing process, but for now, just know that writing this book has helped me work through quite a bit over the last year. It’s been it’s own kind of therapy and I’m grateful for it.

Questions? Leave them below!